Issues in Interdisciplinary Studies

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Welcome to Issues in Interdisciplinary Studies Online (formerly Issues in Integrative Studies Online), the journal of the Association of Interdisciplinary Studies . We have all back volumes online in a pdf format, from the inaugural 1982 issue through the 2014 issue.

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A Role for Formalisms in Integrative Studies
(Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, 1999) Bailis, Stanley; Wentworth, Jay
The increasing importance of integrative studies in higher education makes it more vital to rethink integrative studies from the perspective of reaching maximum benefit. In rethinking integrative studies, it is appropriate to subsume a number of active concepts under more embracing rubrics. Also it is noteworthy that subsumption does not destroy or eliminate the active concept, does sustain the capacity to use the active concept appropriately, and does provide elbow room both for perceiving that concept within the larger rubric, and for reconceptualization of the active concept within the more embracing rubric.It is certainly appropriate as well to rethink the possibility that, in developing integrative studies in higher education, we can and should draw more heavily upon guidance from selected scholarly predecessors than we appear now to be doing, whether they were academics or not. Then, this guidance can also be integrated with any relevant knowledge under exploration at present. Finally, appropriately, we should consider the possibility of applying classical formalisms from formal logic, using computer assistance (which makes those formalisms readily available, and does not require understanding of their symbolic systems or operations as a precondition of their application) as a way of enhancing the breadth and quality of integrative studies: especially of those that involve complexity.
Access to Interdisciplinary Information: Setting the Problem
(Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, 1989) Bailis, Stanley; Gottlieb, Stephen; Klein, Julie Thompson
Identifying and locating interdisciplinary literature, and ideas and information that reside in different disciplines, poses problems for researchers and students. Using electronic means of access, such as online indexes and abstracts and online library catalogs, has provided more flexibility and reduced the amount of time needed for the search process. But scholars continue to question the completeness of the resources for their interdisciplinary work. In part, the problems are due to structures of disciplinary literature and the various forms of access that support current academic and scholarly publications. Scholars can overcome some of the problems with flexible research approaches congruent with the available tools. More importantly, perhaps, groups of interdisciplinary researchers could initiate the development of a taxonomy and language specific to interdisciplinary study and teaching.
Against and For Holism: A Review and Rejoinder to D.C. Phillips
(Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, 1984-85) Miller, Raymond C.
An Argument for the Study of Play
(Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, 1988) Bailis, Stanley; Klein, Julie Thompson; Miller, Raymond
This paper examines the potential for interdisciplinary solutions to problems resulting from a traditional view of the "diffusion of innovations," which has been one of the more popular topics of social science research during the past twenty years. The concept of "re-invention" advanced by diffusion theorists is discussed and compared to the concept of "play" advanced by social anthropologists. The paper shows how an anthropological notion of play might be used to refine and extend diffusion theory.
An Exploration of the Interdisciplinary Character of Women's Studies
(Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, 1996) Bailis, Stanley; Newell, William H.
This article uses the AIS "Guide to Interdisciplinary Syllabus Preparation" to explore the claim that women's studies programs and courses are interdisciplinary. Grace presents a historical overview of the development of women's studies as an academic interdisciplinary venue and then analyzes women's studies courses from U.S. colleges and universities, using exemplary syllabi published in the National Women's Studies Association 1991 Report to the Profession. The analysis concludes that women's studies programs are characterized by seven types of courses, many of which are distinctly not interdisciplinary even though they claim to be.
An Introductory Comment: Integration, Cultural and Academic
(Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, 1987) Klein, Julie Thompson; Bailis, Stanley; Miller, Raymond C.
Arguing for the Rainforest: High-Tech Topoi and the Value(s) of a Database
(Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, 1992) Bailis, Stanley; Gottlieb, Stephen; Klein, Julie Thompson; Fiscella, Joan
When the World Bank created its Environment Department, no institutional mechanism existed to create, collect, or disseminate environmental information that had accumulated in the Bank. Considering the ethical and political dimensions of environmental information, designers of an environmental database began to conceive it as a source for arguments rather than as a storehouse of data. Conceived in terms of argument, the database was developed in light of rhetorical principles that recognized that "factual" and "objective" knowledge shifts radically in destabilized contexts and is inseparable from values and beliefs.
Art and Transformation
(Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, 1998) Bailis, Stanley; Bell, James A.
Many contemporary artists intend to challenge the viewer's modes of perception by manipulating traditional imagery, but does this transformation of cultural stock images constitute a transformation in the audience? This paper will examine artists who appropriate images using reproductive technologies in an attempt to reach a large audience and initiate social change.
Being Interdisciplinary is So Very Hard to Do
(Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, 1991) Bailis, Stanley; Gottlieb, Stephen; Klein, Julie Thompson
Beware of Pidgin Minds: Pitfalls and Promises of Interdisciplinarity in Undergraduate Education
(Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, 1995) Bailis, Stanley; Gottlieb, Stephen
This paper discusses interdisciplinarity in undergraduate education. Having been involved with the design and administration of a major interdisciplinary program, the authors of this paper wish to describe the drawbacks inherent in attempting to catalyze integration simply by exposing undergraduate students to a disciplinary smorgasbord and by encouraging synthesis through application. As an alternative to this approach ”which in their view may lead to the development of "pidgin minds"" they promise a model of pedagogic practice called "knowledge integration training" and involving the reflexive analysis of disciplinary perspectives in the context of team-taught courses.
Book Review: Robert K. Wallace. Melville & Turner: Spheres of Love and Fright
(Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, 1995) Bailis, Stanley; Gottlieb, Stephen
Co-teaching Engineering and Writing: Learning about Programming, Teamwork, and Communication
(Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, 1997) Bailis, Stanley; Gottlieb, Stephen
This study describes the rationales, method, and outcomes of a software engineering course that was cotaught by professors from the disciplines of computer science and writing. The course emphasized both teamwork and communication skills as critical to success for career programmers. The rationales for the course included theory and research in both computer science and writing. Additional rationales were identified in differences between industry practice and prevailing computer science course designs, plus differences between industry practice and student assumptions about programming professionalism. The method of the course used an interdisciplinary process model grounded in Frederick P. Brooks' analysis of team programming practices. This model draws explicit links among teamwork, communication skills, and software engineering design practices. The outcomes of the course, reported by narration of representative learning experiences, included students' enhanced recognition of how technical writing and communication skills could improve programming performance. The authors recommend their interdisciplinary approach as a progressive course design for technology studies.
Consciousness and Linguistic Competency: Making Interdisciplinary Choices
(Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, 1991) Bailis, Stanley; Gottlieb, Stephen; Klein, Julie Thompson
A difficult problem for interdisciplinary study is deciding what constructs from other fields will comport well with the concerns of one's own academic area. Consciousness is a crucial concept for any discipline concerned with human behavior, but is particularly problematic for human communication scholars since it is not a primitive concept for speech communication. This essay advocates choosing a conception of consciousness that reflects the active role of language in shaping human consciousness and is presented in the theories of Vygotsky and Luria. The author suggests that such a perspective would be more practical and heuristic for communication studies than others currently being advanced since assessments of linguistic competency could then be used to investigate human consciousness.
Contending with Complexity: A Response to William H. Newell's "A Theory of Interdisciplinary Studies"
(Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, 2001) Wentworth, Jay; Sebberson, David
"Newell has mounted a large, interesting, and deeply insistent argument to the effect that complexity theory should be adopted as both a rationale for interdisciplinary studies and a guide for its instructional, investigative, and interpretive activities and applications. I agree with him that those who take seriously the practice of interdisciplinary studies need theory, and that complexity theory has value in this regard. But I disagree with four crucial points in his argument: I. I do not think, as he implies, that our need of theory is rooted in any lack of candidates capable of providing a rationale for interdisciplinary studies and of guiding its activities, including integration. II. I do not think, as he suggests, that there is a collectivity of interdisciplinarians whose professional callings can all be usefully described as “necessitated by complexity.” III. I do not think, as he insists, that complexity makes interdisciplinarity necessary, or that interdisciplinarity is not required when complexity is absent. IV. I do not think his analogy between complexity theory and interdisciplinary process justifies his claim that the former is an adequate rationale and guide for the latter. These disagreements grow out of a basic difference of view about what makes interdisciplinary study necessary: For Newell, interdisciplinarity is required by the complexity of its subject matter. For me, interdisciplinarity is made necessary by the tendency of specialized inquiry to produce knowledge about parts that is too often used as if it were about wholes."
Controversy and Canon in the Undergraduate Humanities Curriculum: The Example of Biblical Studies
(Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, 1987) Klein, Julie Thompson; Bailis, Stanley; Miller, Raymond C.
The question of canon, of whether undergraduates should read an authoritative list of books, raises substantial epistemological and pedagogical issues which may be obscured if the question is framed merely as a struggle between the left and the right for control of educational policy. These issues can be highlighted if the question is framed in the concept of reading canonically, that is, reading so as to nourish vision and action. The article summarizes ways Biblical scholars have developed the concept of reading canonically over the past ten years and explores how reading canonicaily may be of use to teachers who find themselves in a daily struggle with narrow and narrowing notions of consumerism and careerism which severely limit human potential.
Creating an Image Bank for Teaching World Religion: Challenging and Reifying Structures of Knowledge
(Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, 1992) Bailis, Stanley; Gottlieb, Stephen A.; Klein, Julie Thompson; Fiscella, Joan
Creating an indexed set of slides for teaching the academic study of religion reveals how existing structures of power/ knowledge shape the frameworks from which new knowledge emerges, and how that knowledge may affect those structures. Although cultural, political and personal history impinge upon every aspect of the project, the data and the challenge of organizing them reveal meaningful world-experiences that lie outside the capacity of our knowledge structures, tending to transform or destabilize them.
Criminology: Discipline or Interdiscipline
(Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, 1987) Klein, Julie Thompson; Bailis, Stanley; Miller, Raymond C.
In its modern form Criminology has had over one hundred years to assume a truly interdisciplinary nature, yet the dominant approach remains discipline-based. However, as the field of Criminology has evolved, the dominant discipline has shifted from medicine and psychology to sociology. The general rejection by sociologists of contributions from other fields seems based not only on normal disciplinary chauvinism, but also on a strongly held normative view that social conditions are more responsible for crime than innate individual differences.
Crossing of Boundaries: Interdisciplinarity as an Opportunity for Universities in the 1990s?
(Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, 1994) Bailis, Stanley; Gottlieb, Stephen; Klein, Julie Thompson
This essay discusses interdisciplinarity as a theoretical, historical, and political scholarly issue. Vosskamp emphasizes, first and foremost, that interdisciplinarity is both dependent upon and indebted to disciplinarity and, further, that successful dialogue and cooperation among the disciplines require both independence within and competence of individual disciplines. He offers a scholarly history of interdisciplinarity before embarking upon an explanation and illustration of interdisciplinary communicative competence; these discussions lead him to draw specific institutional conclusions pertinent to research and teaching in universities in the 1990s.
David Bohm's Theory of the Implicate Order: Implications for Holistic Thought Processes
(Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, 1995) Bailis, Stanley; Gottlieb, Stephen
David Bohm's theory of quantum physics, which focuses on the schism between matter and consciousness, is discussed in terms of positivist knowledge and the interdisciplinary holistic paradigm. This paper examines how scientific and educational holism, predicated on the relationship between knowledge and reality, fosters innovative approaches such as evolutionary learning, a pedagogical application of general systems theory. In pursuit of rightbrain thought and a unified knowledge base, diverse modes of inquiry are presented in the context of Bohm's thesis of an implicate order. Given that holistic thought processes generate a reality-based knowledge, problem-solving styles are examined, which reveal the holistic orientation of proactive problem-solving. Interdisciplinary dialogue is identified as an essential way for moving toward holistic expressions and networks of thought.
Dewey Meets the Buddha
(Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, 1998) Bailis, Stanley; Bell, James A.
From the Greeks we have inherited the notion that a profound awareness of suffering is essential for ethical maturity. In Buddhism, a fundamental aspect of ethical awareness is that all life is suffering. In a more contemporary context, a fundamental aspect of John Dewey's philosophy is that a meaningful education must bring all of life into the classroom learning experience. By combining these ideas, we confront the possibility that deep ethical transformations can occur by incorporating our students' suffering as a fundamental component of the classroom learning experience. But what are the strategies through which we and our students can utilize suffering in order to bring about ethical transformation? This paper will explore an integrative method of philosophy teaching that blends the East with the West.

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